This award will provide partial support for the organization and activities of a conference, `Black Women in the Academy II: Service and Leadership` that will take place June 24-26, 1999. The aim is to increase the number of African American women participating in all of the sciences (including the social sciences) and engineering. The goals are threefold: 1) enhance science participation in the target population by enlisting a broad coalition of African American scholars and others to identify and make available teaching and training models and resources to change science-related participation by African American women; 2) to promote dissemination of information and adoption of models and strategies through communities of scholars and networks of women that are linked to the conference participants; 3) to modify institutional norms and practices in the direction of interdisciplinary work that is supportive of women, and the development of science and research orientation. Central to the strategy is to increase participation of the target population and create formal networks to introduce and disseminate an interdisciplinary model for teaching and engaging students in science. The conference is designed to allow the introduction and discussion of models to enhance teaching, training, affirming climates, and provide a directory of participants by geographic locale, discipline, and interest (teaching and/or research), and to launch `regional networks.` Training and professional development workshops for scholars and graduate students will help to disseminate the information. Also the conference will bring together persons involved in programs to increase the participation of Black students in science and engineering and will link these programs with Black women scientists/engineers in attendance. Cross-disciplinary discussion will give visibility to the importance of science/engineering and can encourage cross-disciplinary work. There will be opportunities for plenary sessions and workshops and panels where scientists/engineers will lead as speakers, planners, and discussants. There is a paucity of the burgeoning social science research on women in science and engineering which addresses the experiences of Black women. Black women scientists and engineers in the Academy are few and this conference offers a unique venue for Black women and women of color to interact with each other in their disciplines and an array of other women scholars. They will have an opportunity to address specific issues related to race and gender in their workshops. Questions to be addressed include: do white male faculty fully recognize the capabilities of Black women science students and scientists? Are Black women being effectively integrated into scientific and engineering communities in the Academy? How are the specific needs of Black female faculty and students being met in engineering and science departments? It is expected that the networking and career enhancing activities of the conference will have long-term effects on the infrastructure of science.
